The founder/Executive Director of Street Poets Inc., Chris has over 25 years of experience teaching poetry and mentoring youth and young adults within and around Los Angeles County’s educational, youth probation and adult prison systems. Through his ongoing work with Street Poets, Chris has served as a consultant, trainer and retreat facilitator for a wide range of companies and organizations including Snap, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps. He has facilitated over 10 homecoming retreats for California State Prison parolees at Wolf Connection Ranch, as well as poetry workshops for law enforcement, gang intervention experts and community leaders in Los Angeles and beyond. Originally from Boston, Chris is a graduate of Duke University (B.A. English) and the American Film Institute (M.F.A. Screenwriting). He worked as an arts journalist in New York City and later as a screenwriter in Hollywood before a volunteer teaching stint in a Los Angeles County juvenile detention camp in 1995 inspired him to create Street Poets.